When researcher Eric Delwart read about the many things that could be preserved in ice cores, hetold NPR he realized he might be able to find buried treasure: caribou poop.

Now, the work has paid off. The well-preserved, 700-year-old remains of, yes, caribou poop that Delwart found contained DNA that he and some colleagues were able to extract. Eventually, they used it to reconstitute an entire plant virus.

“I mean we’re constantly shoving viruses down our throat and if you look at poo samples from humans and from animals you will find a lot of viruses,” Delwart, a researcher at Blood Systems Research Institute in San Francisco, told NPR.

The news, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is both exciting and scary: The virus “time capsules” found in Canada will undoubtedly help inform research on the evolution of viruses. But it also raises the possibility of unleashing ancient viruses as ice melts or Arctic regions are drilled.

“The find confirms that virus particles are very good ‘time capsules’ that preserve their core genomic material, making it likely that many prehistoric viruses are still infectious to plants, animals or humans,” Jean-Michel Claverie, of the Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine in France, told New Scientist. “This again calls for some caution before starting to drill and mine Arctic regions at industrial scales.”

Although Delwart’s team was able to get the buried virus to infect a type of tobacco plant, he told NPR that this particular virus isn’t dangerous.

“There’s a theoretical risk of this, and we know that the nucleic acid of the virus was in great shape in our sample,” Delwart told New Scientist. “But old viruses could only re-emerge if they have significant advantages over the countless perfect viruses we have at present.”

The World Health Organization released a statement earlier this month confirming that the Ebola virus can live in sperm for at least two but up to three months:

The Ebola virus is transmitted among humans through close and direct physical contact with infected bodily fluids, the most infectious being blood, faeces and vomit.

The Ebola virus has also been detected in breast milk, urine and semen. In a convalescent male, the virus can persist in semen for at least 70 days; one study suggests persistence for more than 90 days. [emphasis added]

Three months.

The Ebola virus can hide out in a man’s sperm who is recovering from Ebola for three whole months, meaning anyone he has unprotected sex with is at risk for catching Ebola.

According to Mother Jones, a 1999 CDC study found that one woman has already possibly been infected this way:

…A 1977 study of an outbreak in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo found Ebola in the semen of one survivor 61 days after the onset of his disease. And a 1999 study found the virus in an Ebola survivor’s semen 82 days after he first became ill. That study recommended that survivors use condoms for “at least” three months after contracting the disease.A separate 1999 study, backed by the Centers for Disease Control, identified one woman who tested positive for Ebola but never developed symptoms. The researchers concluded that it was unclear if she ever actually contracted the virus, but that it was “possible” that she was infected by a recovered Ebola patient via his semen. [emphasis added]

So if a woman contracts Ebola this way, if she shows no symptoms, could she also then become an asymptomatic carrier?

It’s a question that needs to be asked.

While the mainstream media and our government health officials have worked very hard to quell public fears by selling the idea that an asymptomatic person cannot transmit this virus period, obviously the fact that it lives on in sperm in men in recovery who appear otherwise healthy shows this is untrue on its face.

The very idea asymptomatic people cannot transmit a virus from a common sense biological standpoint is everything from at the very least highly risky to outright ludicrous, and has never once been proven.

In fact, the opposite has been documented regarding viral shedding of other viruses in studies:

A physician knowledgeable about viremia called Rush Limbaugh (10-14-2014) to discuss how viral replication and dissemination through the body precedes symptom appearance, therefore raising the possibility of transmitting Ebola to others from asymptomatic (without symptoms) individuals. This is consistent with extensive research documenting viral shedding in asymptomatic people, even those who seem perfectly healthy, for many virus species (example 1, example 2).
(source)

As Ebola continues to ravage Africa, and this single outbreak is now to blame for over 5,000 deaths and 12,000 infections, it leaves one to wonder: where are the massive education campaigns focused on informing the public about sperm and unprotected sex as a prolonged mode of Ebola virus transmission?

Like this:

Scientists using stem cells said on Wednesday they had built the world’s first “mini-stomachs” — tiny clusters of human gastric tissue that could spur research into cancer, ulcers and diabetes.

Called gastric organoids, the lab-dish tissue comprises buds of cells that are “a miniature version of the stomach”, the researchers said.

They were made from pluripotent stem cells which were coaxed into developing into gastric cells, according to the study, published in the journal Nature.

Youthful and versatile, pluripotent stem cells have excited huge interest as a dreamed-of source for transplant tissue grown in a lab.

Sources for them include stem cells derived from early-stage embryos and adult cells reprogrammed to their juvenile state, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

But the field has encountered many problems, led by the challenge of getting cells to “differentiate”, or become cells for specific organs.

The exploit entailed identifying the chemical steps that occur during embryonic development, when cells differentiate into the specific types that form the stomach.

These steps were then replicated in a Petri dish so that pluripotent stem cells developed into endoderm cells, the building blocks of the respiratory and gastro-intestinal tracts.

These were then biochemically nudged into becoming cells of the antrum, the stomach region that secretes mucus and hormones.

Still at a preliminary stage, the organoids are a long way from being replacement tissue or a fully-fledged stomach.

Early tests on mice, though, suggest they could one day be a “patch” for holes caused by peptic ulcers.

The organoids also mark an important step forward in how to tease stem cells into becoming 3-D structure, the scientists said.

And, as “mini-stomachs,” they also provide a testbed for studying diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity, the team said in a press release.

“Up until now, there’s been no good way to study stomach diseases in humans,” said Jim Wells, a researcher in developmental biology at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.

“The human stomach is very different than the stomach of other animals. The different cells and their structure and arrangement in our stomach tissues in a dish were virtually identical to that that we would find in the stomach normally.”

In a first experiment, the researchers have used the organoids to see how the notorious ulcer-causing germ Helicobacter pylori infects cells lining the stomach, the Cincinnati facility said.

A UFO appears to hover over a building that may be connected to the real-life Dracula in a recently uncovered painting from the town of Sighisoara, Romania. A photo of the mysterious painting that appears on the wall of a 700-year-old monastery was snapped this summer by tourist Catalina Borta, who sent it to a prominent UFO research group for evaluation.

The bizarre painting shows what appears to be a church — perhaps the same one where the painting was found — seemingly engulfed in flames. Over the church, a large, floating disc hovers, sending a column of smoke billowing toward the sky above.

The town of Sighisoara is believed to be where Vlad Tepes, the notorious “Vlad the Impaler,” also known as Vlad III Dracula, was born in 1431 — not long after the monastery where the painting appears was constructed.

The name “Vlad III Dracula” translates as “Vlad III, Son of the Dragon. The nickname “Impaler,” not imposed on Vlad Tepes until after his death sometime around 1477, came from the bloodthirsty warlord’s practice of spiking the bodies of his enemies on sharpened poles and leaving them on public display as show of power.

Vlad III Dracula was Irish author Bram Stoker’s inspiration for the vampire Count Dracula in the 1897 novel Dracula in which the now-legendary fictional villain first appeared.

“But why would a painting that may have been created in the real Dracula’s lifetime, in his own hometown, depict what appears to be a flying disc-shaped craft, of the type described today as a UFO?”

Acording to Gilli Schechter and Hannan Sabat of the Israel-based Extraterrestrials and UFO Research Association, the painting in the Church of the Dominican Monastery in Sighisoara depicts a flying disc that appears very similar to other UFO type objects scattered through artworks of medieval times.

They cite, in particular, an illustration from a book called the Prodigiorum Liber, an account of an ancient Roman battle during which a mysterious round object appeared in the sky. The flying disc in the illustration looks very similar to the UFO in the Sighisoara church painting.

Similar discs have also appeared on French coins from the 17th century. But UFO expert Marc Dantonio says that the images on those coins are actually intended to depict military shields. The shields were supposed to symbolize the military might of the French king Louis XIV.

Experts have had some trouble dating the strange UFO painting from the birthplace of Vlad Dracula. The inscription below the painting is a Biblical quotation in German, suggesting that the painting was created no earlier than 1523, the first year that the Bible was translated into German.

Does the UFO painting date from the lifetime of the Vlad Dracula or a nearly a century later? Is the painting supposed to symbolize the military power of Dracula? Or is there some connection between the warlord who became a fictional vampire and extraterrestrials?

UFO experts remain baffled as they wait for more information about the startling painting from the home of Dracula.

(NaturalNews) New York Governor Cuomo began yesterday’s Ebola press conference by gently waving his hand at reporters and uttering, “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”

When that didn’t work, he pulled out a pocket watch and let it swing back and forth like a pendulum, slowly repeating “Ebola is hard to catch. Ebola is hard to catch. You are feeling sleepy…”

As anybody with a brain has figured out by now, everything we’re being told about Ebola by government authorities is a distortion, a contradiction or an outright lie. But what are the best lies and contradictions we’ve heard so far?

Here’s the list:

#1) We are wearing space suits just because they make us look cool

There’s absolutely no risk that Dr. Spencer infected anyone in New York City, which is why we are going to closely monitor four people he came into contact with.

We do that because we like to monitor random people for no real reason.

#2) We are fully prepared for an outbreak which will never happen

There is almost zero risk of Ebola ever coming to New York City, which is exactly why we have been preparing for an Ebola outbreak in New York City.

Huh?

#3) Ebola is so hard to catch that we can’t believe anyone managed to catch it

Ebola is hard to catch. It’s so hard to catch that the world’s best-trained doctors accidentally caught it without even knowing they did.

We don’t understand how this happens, unless Ebola was easy to catch, which it isn’t. Trust us. We are expert virologists when we’re not running for office and making political promises we’ll never keep.

#4) Please quarantine yourself even though you don’t need to

Ebola can’t possibly be spread by people who don’t show any symptoms, but we would prefer that doctors who return from West Africa quarantine themselves for 21 days even when they show no symptoms.

But even when doctors break those self-quarantine rules, we will praise them and talk about how much they “tried” to limit their exposure to the public.

#5) Riding the subway is a form of self-quarantine

Dr. Spencer is so awesome! He “tried” to limit his exposure to the public, and he did that by riding the subway, sharing an UBER vehicle and hanging out at bowling alleys with his fingers touching his [bowling] balls.

Because, y’know, the very best way to quarantine yourself is to go out in public. How could anyone not know that? Shouldn’t we give Dr. Spencer a humanitarian award of some kind for putting the safety of others ahead of his own social needs?

#6) Please deposit all biomedical viral waste in the nearest public trash can

Here in New York City, we like to use public trash cans to dispose of biomedical waste that’s contaminated with Ebola virus. (That’s what NYPD cops were just caught on camera doing.) [1]

Because we figure the rats in NYC already carrying at least 18 deadly viruses anyway, so why not give ’em some Ebola to see what mutations might happen? What could possibly go wrong?

#7) Stopping public awareness of Ebola is far more important than stopping Ebola

In the great city of New York, we have decided that the real risk is not from Ebola itself but from public awareness of Ebola.

Thus, instead of going out of our way to stop Ebola, we are focusing our efforts on stopping awareness of Ebola.

Because it’s far better for the public to be ignorant than afraid. In fact, that’s pretty much also how we run the New York City budget, too.

#8) Everything tests negative. Whew!

As part of our effort to calm public fears, we are going to tell you that everybody who once had Ebola now tests negative for Ebola. It’s all cleared!

We tested the nurses from Dallas, and it came up negative. We tested the friends of Thomas Duncan, and they came up negative. Heck, we even tested the Ebola virus for Ebola and it came up negative too. Thank goodness Ebola is now Ebola free.

#9) Enhanced airport screening catching everything except Ebola

Just to calm public fears, we are going to stage some medical theater for you at the airports, acting like we are stopping people with Ebola from entering the country.

…People like Dr. Spencer, of course, who walked right through our “enhanced screening” procedures because, well, it’s all just for show anyway.

If you’re wondering why such medical theater is necessary, refer to point #7, above.

#10) Twenty isolation hospital beds and 100,000 body bags… hmmm…

We are all so totally prepared for an Ebola outbreak in New York City that we have a whopping 20 hospital beds ready with viral isolation capabilities.

And just in case that doesn’t work, we’ve got 100,000 body bags ready to deploy.

It’s sort of a “Plan B” approach, but we’re pretty sure that won’t ever be necessary as long as all Ebola carriers self-quarantine by riding the subway and visiting bowling alleys, which we fully endorse because we are government authorities who always know what we are talking about.